It is known in principle to use short-term power interruptions for driving an identification circuit in the electronic ballast of a lamp and for switching over between operating states when switching lamps and luminaires on and off. These operating states may be various dimming levels or the operation of various lamps in one luminaire.
For example, once the lamp or luminaire has been switched on, the user can switch off the lamp or luminaire briefly and switch it on again immediately in order to thus switch it from a low dimming level into a high dimming level and to switch it back again with a renewed identical operation.